শুক্রবার, ২৪ মে, ২০১৩

'Before Midnight' review: Joy and pain, long after happily ever after

By Alonso Duralde

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - As a rule, we like our love stories to end with a big kiss between the boy and the girl (or other combinations thereof) who have overcome obstacles and issues before setting off together on a life of perfect, eternal romance, unsullied by imperfection or boredom or change or unhappiness.

But what really happens after Happily Ever After? It's a conundrum that faced Stephen Sondheim in the second half of "Into the Woods," and it's one tackled by director Richard Linklater and his co-writers and co-stars Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in "Before Midnight," a follow-up to 1995's "Before Sunrise" and 2004"s "Before Sunset."

Not that seeing the previous two chapters is a requirement, but here's a pr?cis: In "Sunrise," American tourist Jesse (Hawke) meets Frenchwoman C?line (Delpy) on a train; the two of them disembark in Vienna and spend the night walking around the city and talking, feeling an instant bond but unsure if they'll ever see each other again. "Sunset" sees Jesse, now a successful author, visiting Paris to promote his new book, a novel based on his night with C?line; she shows up for the reading, and the two of them walk and talk in the City of Lights, with Jesse eventually deciding not to catch his flight back to the U.S., despite the fact that he's married and has a child.

"Midnight" begins at the end of a vacation in Greece, where Jesse and C?line have spent the summer. Jesse puts his now 11-year-old son on a plane home and frets that he is missing his chance to be present at a key period in his kid's life, since the boy lives in Chicago with Jesse's embittered ex-wife. C?line worries that she will be expected to leave her work as an environmental activist and follow Jesse back to the States (along with their young twin daughters).

Early on, we see C?line and Jesse talk to each other, and to their hosts at a seaside villa, about a variety of subjects, and apart from a few little digs, they seem to be getting along perfectly well. It's at night, when they've checked into a hotel for a night away from the kids, where what begins as an exciting opportunity have sex without children in the next room turns into a full-bore marital argument about giving and taking and cheating and staying - and possibly leaving.

While the ticking-clock element isn't as pronounced as in the previous two films, we begin to wonder whether this couple can mend their fences by the time the clock strikes 12.

What's so extraordinary about this trilogy is the way in which the conversations feel so spontaneous and natural yet reveal so very much about the characters' histories and desires.

There are a handful of scenes involving other people, but most of the movie is Delpy and Hawke talking to each other, and their volleying skills are second to none. Whether they're taking a lengthy car trip or strolling through a Greek village, their badinage is so organic that you'd never guess the two had written, much less rehearsed, all this dialogue.

Wall-to-wall talk is as appealing to some viewers as wall-to-wall action is to others, but in both cases, it's a tricky balance to maintain. And in the same way that "Fast & Furious 6" can keep surging the adrenaline without wearing us out, Linklater and his cast deftly keep the chat flowing consistently while maintaining our interest. C?line and Jesse may not be perfect for each other - is anyone? - but they're appealing, funny people. We've seen how their initial attraction made total sense and how they managed to maintain a longing for each other over time and distance, and now we get to see them discover the resources that will, with any luck, keep their relationship alive.

Linklater's "Before" trilogy, particularly the second and third entries, can sit proudly alongside Eric Rohmer's classic tales of lovestruck adults trying to philosophize their way into each other's hearts. "Before Midnight" is a masterwork of insight into the human condition and a celebration of what two actors in front of a camera can accomplish.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/midnight-review-joy-pain-long-happily-ever-013935537.html

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Dayton signs education bill with all-day kindergarten starting Fall 2014 (Star Tribune)

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Official: Company debt, criminal history should disqualify Foxwoods

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Foxwoods Resort Casino?s crippling debt and the criminal history of several executives should be more than enough reason for the state to throw out the company?s bid to build another casino in Milford, Hopkinton Selectman Ben Palleiko wrote in a letter to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission this week.

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The letter is the most recent swing at a proposal to put a casino in Hopkinton?s backyard, a project the town has fought since its inception.

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The Gaming Commission is in the process of background checking applicants to sniff out questionable behavior or corruption.

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Palleiko?s letter says considering the Foxwoods proposal with knowledge of the company?s major debt and bad reputation would call into question the state Gaming Commission?s integrity and cast doubt on its promise to protect surrounding communities.

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"A decision to move the Foxwoods proposal forward will fly in the face of every assertion made by the MGC regarding the level of scrutiny and high expectations involved in this process," Palleiko wrote Monday.

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This most recent letter comes after an Associated Press story on May 19 about Foxwoods? debt.

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According to the article, Foxwoods? revenue has declined 12 percent in the past year. The company is also in contract disputes with employees who deny they received the high pay rate chief executive Scott Butera recently claimed they did.

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"The shortcomings raised in this article should finally, and conclusively, serve as the basis for this applicant being disqualified from further consideration," Palleiko wrote.

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His letter also mentions the "lengthy criminal record" of Foxwoods chief of staff Antonio Beltran, who has served prison time, had three convictions in a 15-year period and left one young victim paralyzed for life, according to a 1998 story in the Hartford Courant.

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The treasurer of Foxwoods and his brother have also been federally indicted on embezzlement charges. In January the men, Michael and Steven Thomas, denied charges they stole more than $800,000 from their Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation, which owns and operates Foxwoods.

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The chief of staff and treasurer are not on the list of individuals associated with the Milford proposal being scrutinized by the Gaming Commission, although rules allow others to be added to that list.

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Gaming Commission spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll Wednesday said she could not comment on Foxwoods executives? backgrounds while the backgrounding is ongoing.

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"Once the investigations are complete, which are expected to take several more months, the commission will make a suitability determination based on the findings of fact," she said.

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Contact Laura Krantz at 508-626-4429 or lkrantz@wickedlocal.com. Follow her on Twitter @laurakrantzmwdn.

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Source: http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x776193601/Official-Company-debt-criminal-history-should-disqualify-Foxwoods?rssfeed=true

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৩ মে, ২০১৩

J.K. Rowling's 'Potter' first edition raises $228,000 for charity

The auction benefiting the organization English PEN sold a first-edition copy of Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' as well as works by Roald Dahl, Hilary Mantel, and Ian McEwan.

By Molly Driscoll,?Staff Writer / May 22, 2013

The first-edition copy of 'Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone' that was auctioned off also contained notes and drawings by author J.K. Rowling.

Matt Dunham/AP

Enlarge

The first-edition copy of ?Harry Potter and the Philosopher?s Stone? (better known as ?Harry Potter and the Sorcerer?s Stone? to US fans) by J.K. Rowling, with annotations by the author, sold for $228,000 yesterday at Sotheby?s in London.

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The book was being sold along with other first-edition books which had been annotated by their authors to benefit English PEN, an organization which supports writers whose ability to write freely is being threatened.

The first edition of ?Harry Potter and the Philosopher?s Stone? was bought by a bidder who remained anonymous and sent his or her bid over the phone, according to Sotheby?s. In British currency, the book sold for 150,000 pounds.

The funds from the books sold came to 440,000 pounds, or more than $660,000. One of the other notable items up for sale, a copy of ?Matilda? by Roald Dahl that included new drawings by original illustrator Quentin Blake, sold for 30,000 pounds.

?This is a triumphant conclusion to a wonderful project, which has involved the hard work and good will of so many people,? Rick Gekoski, the curator of the collection and an English PEN trustee, told the Guardian. ?I am sure that the buyers of the individual books will be thrilled with their purchases."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/M8YeG8n1ldM/J.K.-Rowling-s-Potter-first-edition-raises-228-000-for-charity

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বুধবার, ২২ মে, ২০১৩

Photo App Piictu To Join Betaworks Company Kandu, Will Shut Down On May 31st

Screenshot_5_22_13_10_25_AMAnother photo sharing app bites the dust? Or is something with promise getting another chance? Either way you look at it, betaworks is adding more technology and team members to its arsenal, as photo sharing app Piictu has announced that the team will "join forces" with a betaworks company that has yet to launch.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/KFePlvOPsuw/

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See Jupiter, Venus and Mercury Dance in Sunset Sky

Take a look at the western sky just after sunset this week, and you?ll see an amazing sight: three bright planets in close formation.

The giant planet Jupiter is moving behind the sun, so is dropping rapidly in the western sky. Mercury and Venus, much closer to Earth, are just emerging from behind the sun, moving in the opposite direction from Jupiter. The three planets meet this week, weather permitting. Such a tight grouping of planets in the night sky won't come again until 2026.

Find yourself a location with a very low western horizon. Go there just after sunset. A small 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars will help, but don't point it in the direction of the sun until it is well below the horizon.

Venus is the brightest of the three, and so should be the first that you see, just above and to the left of the point where the sun has just set.

Astronomers use an upside down scale to measure brightness. The brightest stars are magnitude 1; the faintest the human eye can see are magnitude 6. Really bright objects, like these planets, end up with negative brightness. Tonight Venus will be magnitude ?4.

Once you?ve spotted Venus, look for Jupiter nearby. Jupiter will be two magnitudes fainter than Venus, magnitude ?2, still extremely bright.

Finally, try to spot the third planet, Mercury, slightly fainter than Jupiter at magnitude ?1. Tonight (May 22) and tomorrow night it will be just to the right of Venus, moving upward and to the left more rapidly than Venus.

Try to watch these three planets every night for the next week, and you?ll see them appear to circle around. On Sunday night (May 26) they will form a perfect equilateral triangle, two degrees on a side.

Mercury continues to rise and Jupiter continues to set so that by the middle of next week they will appear in a straight line with Mercury highest and Jupiter lowest, brilliant Venus in the middle.

We don't often get to see three planets in such close proximity and see how rapidly they appear to move.

Editor's note:?If you snap an amazing picture of the three planets or any other night sky view that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to Managing Editor Tariq Malik at?spacephotos@space.com.

This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night @StarryNightEdu. Follow us?@Spacedotcom,?Facebook?or?Google+. Original article on SPACE.com.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/see-jupiter-venus-mercury-dance-sunset-sky-202620368.html

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Wall Street ends flat on correction worries

By Angela Moon

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks ended little changed on Monday, with indexes hovering near record levels as concerns about a correction cut earlier gains that had been prompted by news about a flurry of acquisitions.

The Dow and the S&P 500 briefly hit all-time intraday highs.

Early in the session, investors' sentiment was brightened by a slew of deal news, including Yahoo Inc's acquisition of Tumblr.

Among the day's top gainers were solar companies after shares of JA Solar Holdings Co Ltd soared following an unexpected rise in revenue and a quarterly loss that was far smaller than expected.

Energy stocks were the day's top gainers in the S&P 500 while consumer staples were the biggest underperformers. The S&P energy sector index <.spny> rose 1.3 percent. In contrast, the S&P consumer staples index <.splrcs> fell 1 percent.

Earlier, the Dow climbed to an all-time intraday high at 15,391.84, while the S&P 500 edged up to a new intraday record high at 1,672.84. Both major indexes are up about 17 percent for the year so far.

"Today is definitely a slow period in terms of news or economic data, and there isn't a catalyst to really move higher or lower," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Group in Bedford Hills, New York.

"There are people scared by the sharpness and the length of this rally, which is totally understandable. But there are still those who are afraid to not invest and miss the rally."

The S&P 500 is up nearly 1,000 points from its low in March 2009. And more than 38 percent of the stocks hit a 52-week high within the S&P 500 last week - the highest percentage since at least 1990.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> slipped 19.12 points, or 0.12 percent, to 15,335.28 at the close. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> shed 1.18 points, or 0.07 percent, to finish at 1,666.29. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> declined 2.53 points, or 0.07 percent, to end at 3,496.43.

Earlier, the Nasdaq touched a fresh 52-week intraday high at 3,509.41.

Yahoo Inc will buy blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion cash, giving the Internet pioneer a much needed social media platform to reach a younger generation of users and breathe new life into its ailing brand. Yahoo shares rose 0.2 percent to $26.58.

Shares of JA Solar jumped 70.4 percent to $9.56. It focus on margins over volume paid off as the Chinese solar products maker halved its operating loss in the first quarter by selling more panels in high-margin Japan.

Other solar companies' shares such as China Sunergy Co Ltd surged 50 percent to $2.52 and LDK Solar Co Ltd shot up 20.4 percent to $1.83. Yingli Green Energy Holdings Co climbed 13.1 percent to $3.10.

In other deal news, Actavis rose 1.3 percent to $127.15 after the company said it will acquire Warner Chilcott Plc in a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $5 billion. Warner Chilcott gained 2 percent to $19.60.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold and Plains Exploration & Production said they would pay shareholders more in dividends if they approved Freeport's roughly $6 billion takeover offer for Plains. Plains shares leaped 7.4 percent to $48.94, while Freeport's stock gained 0.6 percent to $32.88.

Wall Street got more feedback from the Fed on Monday with some comments from Charles Evans, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Evans said the U.S. Federal Reserve could keep up its current level of bond-buying stimulus, but could end it abruptly in the autumn if by then it was sure that the labor market was on a solid footing.

Investors will get more comments from the Fed when Chairman Ben Bernanke testifies before a congressional committee on Wednesday.

The beginning of the end of the Fed's massive bond-buying program, which has given strong support to stock gains, might come sooner than many investors think if recent gains in the U.S. labor market hold.

The Fed will also release minutes from its most recent policy-setting meeting on Wednesday. The minutes will be parsed for signs of the Fed's direction on monetary stimulus.

Volume was roughly 6 billion shares on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and the NYSE MKT, slightly lower than the year-to-date average daily closing volume of about 6.34 billion.

Advancers outnumbered decliners on the NYSE by a ratio of 17 to 13. On the Nasdaq, nearly 14 stocks rose for every 11 that fell.

(Editing by Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stock-futures-little-changed-records-acquisitions-eyed-114451808.html

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Big Data, for better or worse: 90% of world's data generated over last two years

May 22, 2013 ? A full 90% of all the data in the world has been generated over the last two years. The internet companies are awash with data that can be grouped and utilised. Is this a good thing?

An increasing amount of data is becoming available on the internet. Each and every one of us is constantly producing and releasing data about ourselves. We do this either by moving around passively -- our behaviour being registered by cameras or card usage -- or by logging onto our PCs and surfing the net.

The volumes of data make up what has been designated 'Big Data' -- where data about individuals, groups and periods of time are combined into bigger groups or longer periods of time.

Research advantages

Petter Bae Brandtz?g of SINTEF ICT points to the huge research centres now developed at internet companies such as Facebook and Google.

'The advantage they have is the enormous volume of data that other social researchers can only dream of,' he says. However, it has also changed the way SINTEF researchers work. Even those not working in the major internet companies can still access Big Data.

Brandtz?g has investigated a tool called Wisdom developed by the American-based company MicroStrategy, and has started applying it in the delTA-project which addresses young people's social activity on the internet.

'This gives me access to data about over 20 million people -- without making a single inquiry. I can analyse different preferences on Facebook and look at age and gender differences between various groups and nations across the world. So far I have compared gender differences in social activity on Facebook between people in Norway, Spain, England, USA, Russia, Egypt, India and China.'

Data protection is a problem we often associate with Big Data, but according to Brandtz?g, data from Wisdom is restricted to large groups and does not go down to 'individual level'. This makes it possible for him to compare large groups without any data protection problems.

Short, transitory information

Big Data makes it possible to achieve research results that cover a wide range of issues, and can tell us a great deal about developments in the world in many different areas. It is possible to carry out thorough analyses and comparisons between countries and different genders.

For example, researchers in Facebook's own research department have looked into how people across the world update their messages, and what kind of information they post about themselves and their lives.

'The surveys show that the messages people have been posting have been getting shorter each year,' says Brandtz?g. 'This reflects the increase in other types of fast social communication, such as Twitter, which has achieved huge popularity because it is about expressing oneself briefly and concisely in a maximum of 140 characters. Another trend in that direction is that young people are telling their stories using images rather than text. The current Instragram craze could be due to the fact that you don't have to write anything.

Comparing data

These volumes of data can therefore provide us with useful information. However, Big Data can become a problem when different sources of data are compared for commercial use in targeted advertising campaigns.

It is becoming increasingly common for data about our location to be linked to our purchasing preferences -- about what we like and don't like. Facebook has made big strides in this area.

Vulnerability and data protection are the dark sides of our new entry into huge data sets and registers.

'Who knows -- in two years, perhaps the tax register will be linked to the health and insurance register?' says Petter Bae Brandtz?g. 'And tax data can go astray; it has happened before.'

What opinions are being communicated?

The overwhelming volume of data being produced raises the issue of the content of all this information. What is being communicated?

The Networked Systems and Services department at SINTEF, to which Petter Bae Brandtz?g belongs, has recently had a bid accepted for the EU REVEAL project. In this project, researchers will look at combinations of different data sources and learn about people's ability to express themselves, and about the quality and truthfulness of data registered on social media. What is the content of these media? Who are the senders? Who else has said the same thing?

'We will look at various sources in relation to each other, and for example find out how trustworthy Twitter messages are,' says Brandtz?g. He also points to the new trend in fragmenting information across many channels -- such as Facebook, SMS, e-mail, blogs, Twitter and Instagram.

How trustworthy are the media?

The ability to disseminate information to large groups in real time has made Twitter and Facebook important communications tools when major events take place.

When hunting for the Boston terrorists, the police, authorities and traditional media also used social media like Twitter, Instagram, Reddit and Facebook to actively collect and disseminate information about the incident. Several voluntary groups were also set up via social media, in order to try and help the police. However, social media as channels of communications proved to be not entirely beneficial, but also a source of confusion and misinformation.

Can Big Data be used as a resource for journalists, and how trustworthy is the information available on social media? This is one of the subjects that the SINTEF researchers will be looking into as part of the EU REVEAL project.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/computers_math/information_technology/~3/TIRHBSRuXs0/130522085217.htm

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Role of Health-Law 'Navigators' Under Fire (WSJ)

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মঙ্গলবার, ১৪ মে, ২০১৩

U.S. Republican sets Friday hearing on IRS Tea Party scrutiny

On last night's Daily Show,?Jon Stewart took on the legitimate scandal at the IRS, which involves the?targeting of Tea Party groups, and explained how it gives conspiracy theorists a leg to stand on. After having a good laugh about how the IRS can just apologize for anything, Stewart went straight to the top: "Well, congratulations, President Barack Obama," he said. "Conspiracy theorists, who generally can survive in anaerobic environments, just had an algae bloom dropped on their f--king heads, thus removing the last arrow in your pro-governance quiver."?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-republican-sets-friday-hearing-irs-tea-party-194806384.html

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Dennis Rodman to Kim Jong-un: 'Do me a solid' and free Kenneth Bae (+video)

US basketball star Dennis Rodman recently hung out with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un - now he's tweeted a request?that the American sentenced to 15 years' hard labor be released.

By Ryan Lenora Brown,?Correspondent / May 9, 2013

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (l.) and former NBA star Dennis Rodman watch North Korean and US players in an exhibition basketball game at an arena in Pyongyang, North Korea, in February. Rodman is tapping his friendship with Kim Jong-un when he tweeted a request 'to do me a solid' and free Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American man detained in the North.

Jason Mojica/VICE Media/AP/File

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When Dennis Rodman spent a week touring North Korea in February, he had nothing but glowing words for the country?s leader, Kim Jong-un.

Skip to next paragraph Ryan Lenora Brown

Correspondent

Ryan Brown edits the Africa Monitor blog and contributes to the national and international news desks of the Monitor. She is a former Fulbright fellow to South Africa and holds a degree in history from Duke University.?

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?Guess what? I love him,? he told reporters. ?He?s really awesome.?

But now the basketball diplomat is testing his friendship with the young Kim by asking the leader to release an American sentenced last week to 15 years of hard labor for ?hostile acts? against the North Korean regime.

?I?m calling on the Supreme Leader of North Korea, or as I call him, ?Kim,? to do me a solid and cut Kenneth Bae loose,? Mr. Rodman tweeted Tuesday.?

The missive came in response to a Seattle Times opinion piece last week, in which writer Thanh Tan called on Rodman to put his goodwill with Pyongyang on the line for Mr. Bae, a tour operator arrested in November on murky charges.

Perhaps now is the time for the NBA has-been to practice some real basketball diplomacy and call up his so-called friend for a favor: Grant American detainee Kenneth Bae amnesty and release him to his family?.

Bae is being used as a political pawn by a desperate despot who happened to?gallivant around the country with Rodman?in March. Perhaps now is the retired player?s chance to use his notoriety for something other than to over-inflate his ego.

Rodman apparently got the message.

?In direct response to your article headline, 'Ok.' Read your story @uscthanhtan, and I decided to help,? he tweeted.

And while Twitter is an admittedly feeble platform for diplomacy, it?s not out of the question that Kim will see the tweet. After all, the North Korean government has an active ? if bizarre ? Twitter presence itself, putting out an erratic blast of messages about American imperialism and the ?victory and glory? of the Kim regime.

But even if Kim gets Rodman?s message, will he understand it? After all, ?do me a solid? isn?t exactly a phrase that translates easily.

Washington Post blogger Max Fisher writes that the closest Korean equivalent of the colloquialism would be the somewhat menacing (at least to American ears) phrase, ?Look at my face and release Kenneth Bae.?

?Look at my face,? he writes, ?is a Korean expression that?s like a special, for-friends-only version of ?do me a favor.??

Whether Kim will look at Rodman?s face ? double nose ring and all ? remains to be seen, but Americans favored by North Korea have helped coax the regime to release American prisoners in the past.

In 2009, for instance, former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang and shortly after the visit then-Dear Leader Kim Jong-il pardoned two American journalists who were being held in the country. In total, six Americans ? including Bae ? have been held by the North Korean government since 2009, the Monitor reported. The other five were all released.

Rodman?s February visit to North Korea ? along with the friendship tour of Google Chairman Eric Schmidt in January ? was initially hailed by some Western observers as a sign that the young Kim might be more interested in opening his country to the rest of the world than his father and grandfather had been.

However, analysts say there have been no fundamental changes to the regime?s posture since then. If anything, interaction with Western celebrities puts the regime in a more powerful position because it can claim new geopolitical cache.?

?Ultimately, they [North Korea] come out ahead because they can portray it as the world coming to pay tribute, or at least to be there,? Aidan Foster-Carter, a Korean expert, told the Monitor in March.

Indeed, as the state-run Korean Central News Agency (as well as Western outlets) reported during Rodman?s trip, the basketball player was an enthusiastic tourist, visiting a greatest hits list of Kim-related sites.?

Rodman and his cohort "paid high tribute to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il before their statues. They entered the halls where Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il lie in state and paid homage to them,? a press release announced. ?They made an entry in the visitor's book.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/231i8YePVWE/Dennis-Rodman-to-Kim-Jong-un-Do-me-a-solid-and-free-Kenneth-Bae-video

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